On busy news day, MSNBC's Maddow harps on Trump dossier

Thursday was a jam-packed news day that included explosive allegations against one of Hollywood’s most powerful men and the National Rifle Association speaking out against bump stocks on the heels of the deadliest mass shooting in American history. But MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” opened with a 20-minute segment on the stale story about the alleged Trump dossier and his alleged connections to Russia.

Maddow seemed excited to exclusively report that an associate of Trump dossier author Christopher Steele said he is willing to meet with the Senate Intelligence Committee. The first 20 minutes featured Maddow discussing the dossier, which the MSNBC host claims is a “well-developed conspiracy” between the Trump campaign and Russian leadership. She went through the history of the dossier, admitting a lot of it has not been proven to be accurate before adding, “At least not yet.”

Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor said that “the left can't come to terms” with the fact that Trump defeated Hillary Clinton on Election Day, even though it has been nearly a year. He feels that liberal pundits are “desperate to find an excuse” which is resulting in “desperately biting into the Russia investigation while important news swirls around them.”

The contents of the dossier were first published by Buzzfeed back in Jan. 10, but Maddow led her program on Oct. 5 with an attempt at a follow-up story. She could have opened with The New York Times bombshell that Harvey Weinstein has allegedly been harassing women for decades, the NRA uncharacteristically opposing a gun-related device or even Trump’s reported outrage regarding Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Surely there was an angle related to the mass shooting in Las Vegas that would have been more timely and relevant than more attempts to connect Trump to Russia. Instead, Maddow brought up things like Russians allegedly offering anti-Clinton information to the Trump campaign and already reported news about Trump associates meeting with Russians.

“The truth is, Trump defeated Hillary. He did so because his message was popular and he ran a better campaign. And I doubt the left will ever accept that,” Gainor said.

Maddow did offer some new content, such as Robert Mueller’s team meeting with the author of the dossier. This riveting TV involved Maddow reading a CNN report live on MSNBC and then explaining to viewers why what they just heard was “interesting.”

Perhaps Maddow wanted to try something different, as she’s been getting slammed in the ratings department since Fox news’ “Hannity” was moved up an hour to go head-to-head with the darling of liberal media. “Hannity” was the most-watched show on cable news last week – his first going head-to-head with Maddow. The Fox News veteran defeated Maddow in both total viewers and the key news demo of adults age 25-54, and has continued to prevail through the first three days of his second week at 9 p.m. ET.